Nexus 5

Updated: 3 months ago

In Short

The Nexus 5 is the fifth phone in Google's Nexus line, and the second from South Korean manufacturer LG, following up the Nexus 4, released in late 2012. As is the case with previous Nexuses the Nexus 5 was the launch device for a new version of Android — in this case Android 4.4 KitKat. Naturally the Nexus 5 received an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop as soon as it was available in November 2014.

The Nexus 5, very roughly based off the LG G2, comes in with a 4.95-inch 1080p display and is powered by a 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, with 2GB of RAM and 16 or 32GB of storage. There's an 8-megapixel OIS (optical image stabilization) rear camera and 1.3-megapixel front-facer. There's also Qi wireless charging under the back, fitting in with Google's push towards that standard.

The styling of the Nexus 5 is pretty basic, even when you see it in its white and bright red color options, and the back looks very similar to that of the Nexus 7 (2013). There's really no design flair to be seen here — it's very much a "basic" smartphone that doesn't try to do anything out of the ordinary.

Sprint and T-Mobile both sold the Nexus 5 for use on their networks, but it also was sold directly to consumers from the Play Store for use on those networks as well as AT&T or any other GSM carrier in the U.S. Internationally the Nexus 5 was sold as a slightly different model with radio bands suited for international use.

13 November 2014 228By Alex DobieLollipop is one of the biggest Android releases ever — Here's our take on it
With the new Android 5.0 Lollipop release, Google's OS enters its third era. The first saw the scrappy platform achieve early success on smartphones, with devices like the Droid series and the first Samsung Galaxy handsets, paving the way to later dominance of the category. The second era was characterized by the important Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich release, which introduced a new focus on design, including the "Holo" visual style, and also allowed Android to gain early traction on tablets.
And now we're seeing the most important Android release in at least three years. Though we're just now getting to use it on Nexus handsets, Lollipop is about much more than smartphones. It promises to establish Android in new device categories like TVs, cars and smartwatches — and eventually an Android runtime on Chromebooks will augment Google's desktop presence. In its third era, Android is no longer just a mobile OS — it's an everything OS. It's the new embedded Linux or embedded Windows — a ready-made, feature-rich, and now design-rich OS — and Google wants to bring it to every screen you use.
Nevertheless, mobile remains Android's bread and butter, and that's what we're going to focus on in this review. Appropriately, there are a bunch of really important new additions for traditional mobile devices like phones and tablets. Lollipop introduces Material Design, Matias Duarte and co's new design language for the whole of Google, along with improved battery life thanks to the "Project Volta" initiative, and a rethinking of the way Android devices handle notifications. And that's before you consider important under-the-hood tweaks like the new Android Runtime (ART). To put it simply, this is one of the biggest Android updates ever.
We'll dive deeper into the depths of Android 5.0 Lollipop in our full review of the OS. Join us after the break.

15 December 2014 168By Andrew MartonikGoogle released Android 5.0.1 to AOSP and posted factory images for the Nexus 9, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, and now folks have started to receive the actual OTA updates for the incremental bump...

27 October 2016 156By Jerry HildenbrandGoogle's Nexus and Pixel phones are great for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the ability to manually update the software on them when Google releases it. If you don't want to wait for an over-the-air update, this is how you manually flash it.

12 December 2014 142By Alex DobieA year on — and with an all-new version of Android — how does Google's 5-inch handset measure up?
I've used the Nexus 5 — Google and LG's last Nexus collaboration — on and off for the past year...

19 November 2015 51By Jared DiPaneWhile it may not be the newest, the Nexus 5 is still a great phone. Google's already pushed out the Marshmallow update for it, and now you can save big on a brand new one from Expansys.

11 November 2015 96By Andrew Martonik"LG’s second Ne​xus is the best phone you can buy for $350," said our review of the Nexus 5 back in 2013, and those are some big shoes to fill. Of course each year the new Nexus aims to one-up the previous generation, but when with the Nexus 5X you're actively courting those who so desperately love their Nexus 5, the stakes are a bit higher.

31 October 2015 61By Jared DiPaneLooking for an Android device to run Marshmallow on without breaking the bank? Expansys is offering some sweet deals, with savings of up to 40 percent on the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6, priced as low as $180.

05 August 2015 18By Jared DiPaneAccording to Sprint, the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 should be receiving build LMY48I beginning today, with security fixes for the Stagefright exploit in tow. Sprint has updated its software support pages to reflect August 5 as the release date.